Today we got the news that the medical profession is going to allow junior doctors “the right” to work 24-hour shifts while they are training, up from the previous 16-hour limit. Working young doctors to death has been part and parcel of medical training for decades, despite the risks. But now sadistic hospital managers want to crank up the pain even more and give young scrubs hell.
Ostensibly, the reasons for all this is to allow young doctors the opportunity to spend more time with patients after they have been admitted to hospital. Tracking a patient for 24 hours, rather than say, 8, is allegedly much better training. But the real reason might have more to do with the fact that existing doctors are continuing the culture of bullying in the medical sector. Whatever the reasons, many health groups have come out and said that the practice is unacceptable, not just from a working conditions perspective (what other industry forces people to work 24-hour shifts?) but also a patient safety perspective as well. It’s just not a good idea to have young, inexperienced, sleep-deprived doctors wandering around, administering medication and carrying out procedures. Somebody is going to get hurt.
These latest developments in the world of health, alongside the ongoing battle in Congress over Obamacare, is enough to put anybody off the profession. It all seems too stressful.
But is it? Well, according to CareerCast, not always. They compared eleven different causes of stress among various medical professions and then ranked them according to how stressful job was. They then came up with a list of the least stressful jobs in medicine. Here they are.
Chiropractor
Chiropractors, for those of you who don’t know, are medical professionals who try to naturally manipulate the body to relieve pain. Patients with things like pulled muscles, back problems, and trapped nerves will often seek the help of a chiropractor for relief.
Chiropractors generally work in pleasant environments. And because they’re rarely involved in life or death situations, their jobs tend to be relatively stress-free. Much of the job involves handing out advice on what people should do to relieve their chronic pain, including eating better and exercising more. The average chiropractor takes home more than $67,000 a year.
Pathologist
Pathologists are physicians who spend a lot of time studying diseases and treatments. Their job is to match the right condition to the proper treatment and prevent mistakes from being made. Some pathologists specialize in specific areas of the body, like ear, nose, and throat, by taking ENT training. Others perform autopsies on behalf of medical schools, hospitals, and clinics.
The thing that pathologists like about their work is that it isn’t on the frontline of medicine. They’re in the background, staring through their microscopes and using lab equipment to identify diseases. They get to work on a broad range of projects for the hospital, far away from the hustle and bustle of the A&E department. Pathologists can expect to earn around $66,000 a year.
Dental Hygienist
Dental hygienists are among the first people dental patients meet when they arrive at the dentist. Their job is to remove plaque and gunk from people’s mouths with tools provided by the dental practice. The work doesn’t involve any hardcore treatments, and so the risks of the job are minor. Other duties include helping the dentists with caring for patients and looking after surgical equipment. The Bureau of Labor estimates that the growth potential for the job is good, indicating that there will be more openings available for budding dental hygienists in the future.
Dental Technician
Dental technicians aren’t so much medical professionals as they are artisans. Their job is to take molds of people’s mouths and turn them into medical products, including braces, dentures, and crowns. To be a dental technician, you’ve got to have a fine eye for detail and be able to work with ingredients, like plaster, gold, and steel. You’ll also have to learn how to use high-tech laboratory equipment for cutting and shaping the material into the desired form.
As you can imagine, the working conditions are comfortable, and you get to work alongside many other talented, professional people. The only downside of the job, relative to other medical careers, is the pay. The average salary for a dental technician is around $36,000 a year.
Dietitian
What’s the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist? Not much. Dietitians usually work as part of a larger organization, like a hospital, whereas nutritionists don’t. Dietitians also usually have to pass a qualification which says that they are fit to practice, whereas anybody can set up shop as a nutritionist.
Dietitians are becoming more and more popular as the medical profession finally works out that what people eat has a massive impact on their overall health, especially later in life. But at the same time, the news recently broke that fewer and fewer people are concerned about losing weight. We may be entering an era of “fat acceptance” where the majority of overweight people don’t bother to even try to lose weight. This trend could be bad news for dietitians in the long run.
Being a dietitian is an exciting job, mainly because of the scope of the field of nutrition. There’s just so much to learn about how food can help people live longer and healthier lives. Being a dietitian can be frustrating, especially if you have lots of patients who don’t stick to their regimen. But it can also be intensely rewarding when a patient commits and reverses a health condition. You can expect to earn around $55,000 in this role.
Audiologist
Audiologists are people who work with other people to help them to restore their sense of hearing. They usually have the skills to work with deaf individuals and apply their expertise across a wide range of age groups. A lot of their time is spent helping children regain their sense of hearing and balance, especially if they’ve had an infection. As an audiologist, you’ll need a broad range of technical skills. Salaries start at around $60,000.
Photo by Daniel Frank
Milo Senalle
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